heart rate spikes

I am getting some wacky readings too. It has caused me some anxiety also here’s a photo of the drop I was working moving boxes around in a van when this happened my wife got tired of me freaking out so she said give me the watch and she wore it for a few hours and it happened to her too haha I feel better now. Two photos here ones mine the other is hers. No exercise just busy movements.

I've had a similar issue. I've made sure my watch is fitted correctly, but I do get the random spike in heart rate say from 74 bpm to 166 bpm for a second or two, then right back down to normal. It seems to correspond to a fast movement of my arm... reaching for something, brushing teeth etc.

My Heart Rate monitor suddenly mid-year started with random spikes readings for no particular reason. It would be at 72 and then spike for one reading to 166 and then back to the 70’s. This is highly frustrating and leaves me without a reliable HR monitor.

What surprises me is that with all the brilliant Apple software engineers none of them have thought about writing a couple of lines of code to validate the reading before displaying it. If the last two readings were in the 70’s and then the next reading is is 166, surely they should suppress the reading random spike and check again. If it drops back to the previous range then ignore the spike. If it stays up in that range then continue to record it. My world of process control would encounter catastrophic failures if every time a sporadic reading from a sensor came through. We would have airplanes crashing and power plants causing huge disasters if every reading was taken as the gospel and not validated before accepting it as a true value.

Please Apple Engineers, take note and add a few lines of code to suppress random readings so I can continue to use my Apple Watch as a true HR monitor.

Hi, this sudden spike occurs when the back of the watch moves in relat to the skin during a measurement cycle. You can replicate this by taking a measurement deliberately by tapping the heart icon, then after a few moments move the watch up or down on your wrist while it is reading. Usually you will get a massive spike that is not repeated if the watch is not moved further.

I've got the same problem. Only started noticing this when downloading SleepMatic recently. First two nights data was pretty solid at 70 bpm during the night. Third night? Abrupt spike from 70 to 115 then down to 70. I was trying to figure out if this was an apnic episode or not. Following night, got a drop to 53 bpm then back to 70. Hmmmmm. Next night, seeing a drop to 53 before I even went to sleep....when I was watching a movie on TV and would have KNOWN. Last night? Spike to 120 at 6 am with the watch strapped snug so it can't move.

I'm pretty **** sure if I was hitting 120 I'd be waking up panting. Now, I've had an extra heartbeat my entire life, and I'm wondering if what's happening here is a misinterpretation of the data if the extra beat kicks in.

I have a generation 1 Watch and while I started noticing weird spikes months ago, now with OS4 I think it's getting way, way worse (or maybe it's the hardware itself that it's getting too old?...).

I'm seeing a lot of frequent 120-160 spikes as well as 30-40 dips in my readings. What I've noticed is that these weird values only happen with the automatic readings. If I start a continuous recording session with Cardiogram it's a steady 60-65 for hours (well, at least until the battery dies). But as soon as I turn off the continuous reading... boom, here's the 30 heart rate.

Another thing I noticed, it looks like the spikes/dips are always the first readings, then it starts to correctly read the heart rate. Also, if I move my hand suddenly or do some other irregular movement then I also get weird 120-160/30-40 values.

I mean I would prefer the watch to skip completely everything that is not 100% reliable than to have all these wrong values.

So I have had the exact same problem, and am embarrassed to say what I have went through. I was convinced I must be having some type of fibrillation or something. I have seen this on my gen 1 watch for a year now. Did all the things they suggested as well, still got spikes. As a result, I actually went to a heart doctor who hooked me up to a 48 hour heart monitor test...which came back completely normal....no spikes despite seeing them on the Apple Watch during this time. I even joined cariogram and it just takes the data from the watch and gives no diagnostic back. So that was a waste. I just upgraded to a 3 series...same thing. I now have an alert on my watch so it tells me when it happens - but it will not work when you are exercising (which is when it happens to me). So now when I am exercising I hold the heart monitor on the exercise machine...I have caught several times my watch spiking, but zero spike on the exercise machine - completely normal. I don’t know what to say other than this is likely something many people experience. I love the watch and what it does - but this problem is annoying and for me caused considerable angst! I hope it is fixed soon. My biggest worry is if someone does have an actual problem and ignores it because they think it is erroneous. But for me at least it seems to not be accurate.

The watch clearly has no idea of when its accurate or when it is not. I can assure you there was no reason for these odd measurements. Cost me an expensive cardio visit & tests & the conclusion by the cardio was not to put any credibility in what the watch was reporting. Told me to toss it, but I like having the LTE for calls without the iPhone. So disappointed in the watch.

I have the exact same unsettling experiences almost daily . I do have the watch for health reasons as I have SVT but it is rare but I like to know what my heart rate is if it goes up over 140 and doesn’t come down. That aside this faulty readings are makes me a nervous wreck with the alerts , i do feel they are relate to erratic arm movements cos really I would know if my heart was 156bpm, I’d feel it .

I’m close to getting rid of the watch as it has become the friend that turns on you from time to time lol

I have a Series 2 watch and my watch started alerting me during the night (waking me up) that my heart rate was spiking @ 120+bpm versus the usual resting rate in the low 50's. Quite disconcerting and definitely didn't facilitate a restful remainder of the nocturnal hours.

The watch is less than a year old - fitted correctly - with reasonable battery - latest OS - so I can only assume it's the latest version glitch everyone else is talking about. Not ideal - here's hoping it gets fixed asap.

I noticed this behavior too recently. Not sure if it started after an upgrade or after I had my baby (and was pushing a stroller).

It really worried me at first - I am having extremely low postpartum heart rates. So to have my hr jump to 160+ while walking, in addition to my crazy low resting hr, scared me.

But hubby, who works with interpreting data a lot (including analyzing wave data) was sure it was a bug based on how it spikes. Something about harmonics and not filtering peaks right. So...

We brought out the finger pulse ox, which has a pulse reader. When I got the haptic alert it was spiking (in the HeartWatch app -- GREAT app for the Apple Watch) we put on the second monitor and...

Comfirmed it's a bug.

It could be happening because my wrist is flexed (pushing the stroller), but I swear this "feature" is somewhat new. I've been walking with the stroller for almost two months and only noticed theses spikes in the last 2+ weeks.

I hope Apple fixes this soon! Sure scares ya at first.

In Apple's terminology, the original Apple Watch range is referred to as "Apple Watch (1st generation)".

There is no such model range as "Series 0".

Apple offers the following resource for identifying Apple Watch models:

Identify your Apple Watch - Apple Support

To check your Apple Watch model - along with any remaining service and support coverage - you can also enter the serial number here:

• Check Your Service and Support Coverage - Apple Support
• Find the serial number for your Apple Watch - Apple Support

I have had the same issue. My heart rate spikes when I sleep. It says it will go from 60 to 160 bpm if it was getting that high I'm sure I would wake up. One night it said it lasted almost 1 hour and the other night it said 5 minutes. It doesn't happen every night but like two times per week. It was causing some anxiety but I realized if it's happening at night it would be happening during the day. There was a couple times it said my heart rate was 35 during the day. There is no way that's correct maybe if I was in REM sleep but not awake and moving. Maybe I'm just one of those people who won't get a good reading. I almost wondering if me moving around in my sleep. I don't know I was thinking about asking my doctor to let me use a heart monitor for a week to make sure it's not doing that' but I really think it's the watch cuz like I said 160 is a high and I believe it would wake me up and it would happen during the day.

Same for me !

I have the brand new Apple Watch Nike Edition (no cellular) and i have many spikes during my run.

I also noticed that the hr is anormaly high during the first minutes of my run (around 170bpm, i'm sure i'm not that high !) and then go down near 140bpm, which is correct.

Of course i wear my watch correctly, not too tight or too loose...

I had the same issue with my previous watch nike serie 2.

It's very bad not to have a reliable hrm when you want to run depending on your bpm 😟